The Nicholas Blake Treasury (Thou Shell of Death; The Beast Must Die; The Corpse in the Snowman)

The Corpse in the Snowman (published 1941) is among the best Nigel Strangeways mysteries. It is one of the few stories in which Nigel's remarkable wife, Georgia, one of the three most famous women explorers of her day, actively joins him in the investigation. Also, his long term friend, Inspector Blount of Scotland Yard, is assigned to the case. Nicholas Blake penned The Corpse in the Snowman in 1940, apparently just before major British-German engagements began, certainly before the Luftwaffe bombing of London. At one point Charlotte Restorick of Easterham Manor even asks, "I wonder when the war is really going to start in earnest". Nigel and Georgia are asked to come in midwinter to Easterham Manor under the pretense of investigating a psychic incident. Shortly after their arrival, the rather notorious, strikingly beautiful, Elizabeth Restorick is found dead by hanging. Nigel uncovers evidence of murder, and he soon finds himself once again working with his friend, Inspector Blount of Scotland Yard. The Corpse in the Snowman is a first rate puzzle with sufficient red herrings to supply a fish market. Nigel as usual focuses more on psychological elements while the plodding, yet superbly capable, Inspector Blount compiles physical evidence. Nigel weaves one theory after another, only to have them unravel as new information and evidence emerges. The conclusion to this well-crafted, psychologically complex mystery is logically consistent, entirely fair, and not unreasonable, and yet the psychological motivation (and some of the science) is now less convincing than it would have been some seventy-five years ago. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this classic British manor house mystery and rank it among my favorites. Cecil Day-Lewis (Nicholas Blake was a pseudonym) authored sixteen Nigel Strangeways mysteries spanning three decades (1935-1966). Day-Lewis was professor of poetry at Oxford in 1951-56, and a lecturer in the 1960s at several universities. He was Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. The actor Daniel Day-Lewis is his son. For readers interested in the war years I also recommend another Strangeways mystery, Minute for Murder (1947), one that is more biographical as Cecil Day-Lewis actually worked in the wartime Ministry of Information in London from 1941-1946.